DON'T DO CARDIO - Must Read!

What I noticed while reading through this thread is that those who hate cardio agree that it is bad for you, and those who do cardio disagree. Well, since I do a lot of cardio, and it works really well for me, I too will say that the original poster is full of doo doo.

Your ancestors didn’t jog for miles at a time. They didn’t jump around for an hour doing aerobics. They had short bursts of activity – sprinting to catch food, or to avoid being food. That’s how they stayed lean and strong.

Last I checked "your ancestors" didn't have cars, fast foods, tv dinners, computers, tv's ... ect. Technology is mostly to blame for excessive weight gain today. If we weren't such a lazy ass society we wouldn't have to rely on cardio to burn a substantial amount of calories. Time changes and things evolve. This article is bogus. It's just like the counter arguments on 2nd hand smoke. For every study there is someone who will try to disprove something that has worked for ever. Totally bogus. Disappointing that someone would even write this. There have been for to many people who have died because of obesity and all it's related illnesses than of running too much. When you can disprove that I might read this article.

And make sure you don't drive in a car, talk on your cell phone or take a nap... those things can kill you too.

+1 coachcj8! Our ancestors walked miles and miles each day for food and water; many places in the world, this still happens. But if you can drive your car a half-mile to McDonald's, you are probably not getting the level of cardio that ancestors got, which the quoted post ignores. Cardio is just a fact of an active life.

Very strange that if cardio was so bad why does it help so greatly with weightloss? I have lost 11kgs and all the exercise i have done is cardio, same with my boyfriend, he's lost quite a lot of weight and he only does cardio. I agree with Heidijoy, our ancestors did cardio and none of them were tubby.

During the persistence hunt an antelope, such as a kudu, is not shot or speared from a distance, but simply run down in the midday heat. Depending on the specific conditions, hunters of the central Kalahari will chase a kudu for about two to five hours over 25 to 35 km (16 to 22 mi) in temperatures of about 40 to 42 °C (104 to 108 °F). The hunter chases the kudu, which then runs away out of sight. By tracking it down at a fast running pace the hunter catches up with it before it has had enough time to rest in the shade. The animal is repeatedly chased and tracked down until it is too exhausted to continue running. The hunter then kills it at close range with a spear.

something else I was thinking of (due to my recent AC problem) regarding our 'ancestors' - they didn't have climate controled structures to live and work in. The effects of ambient temperature on daily calorie burn? Haven't looked into that yet.

Since chronic means continuing for a long time or recurring frequently, I suppose the author proposes we do cardio for short periods of time and infrequently. That's how I got in the condition I found myself in. LOL!

" Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." Teddy Roosevelt

Our ancestors didn't have Lucky Charms and Sunny Delight either. Some people have no desire to do cardio, some do it for a lifestyle change and some go to extremes for a short time to get thos 6-pk abs. The only thing I've got against the insanity type cardio programs is that the participants push the envelope for 90 days or so, get very fit, consume inordinate amounts of carbs, and then taper off, and sometimes continue to consume inordinate amounts of carbs, and then, guess what? Their weight chart looks like the business cycle. I've never known anyone that continued with the P90 or similar programs for extended periods of time. Runners are about the only ones, I know of, that continue the regimen for a lifetime, and I have yet to see any evidence that suggests that this decreases their longevity at all - quite the contrary. Runners may scale back on their HIIT workouts as they grow older, but I have actually seen people still pulling off marathons in their 90's. I think the empirical data contradicts the theoretical in this case.

" Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." Teddy Roosevelt

The guy who wrote the article may say he's a doctor, but he doesn't write like a professional so it's hard for me to take anything he said seriously. He didn't provide citations for the majority of what he claimed the effects of cardio are, & the one citation he did include related lung function & risk of heart attack, not cardio & lung function. Plus the journal cited is from 1988.

Bottom line is that everyone needs exercise to be healthy. If you like cardio, do cardio. If you don't, do something else. Just move.

During the persistence hunt an antelope, such as a kudu, is not shot or speared from a distance, but simply run down in the midday heat. Depending on the specific conditions, hunters of the central Kalahari will chase a kudu for about two to five hours over 25 to 35 km (16 to 22 mi) in temperatures of about 40 to 42 °C (104 to 108 °F). The hunter chases the kudu, which then runs away out of sight. By tracking it down at a fast running pace the hunter catches up with it before it has had enough time to rest in the shade. The animal is repeatedly chased and tracked down until it is too exhausted to continue running. The hunter then kills it at close range with a spear.

Hey, this sounds a lot like the way my husband got me to go out with him.

During the persistence hunt an antelope, such as a kudu, is not shot or speared from a distance, but simply run down in the midday heat. Depending on the specific conditions, hunters of the central Kalahari will chase a kudu for about two to five hours over 25 to 35 km (16 to 22 mi) in temperatures of about 40 to 42 °C (104 to 108 °F). The hunter chases the kudu, which then runs away out of sight. By tracking it down at a fast running pace the hunter catches up with it before it has had enough time to rest in the shade. The animal is repeatedly chased and tracked down until it is too exhausted to continue running. The hunter then kills it at close range with a spear.

Hey, this sounds a lot like the way my husband got me to go out with him.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.... This is my favorite thing ever.

Someone who is busier than you is working out right now.There will come a day when you can no longer do this. Today is not that day.

Just a comment on "the article." It isn't an article, it's an advertisement. If you google it, you'll see that. And, I'll bet Al Sears didn't even really write it. I'll bet his PR people did. It is really a good idea to know your sources on the internet. Dr. Sears, like many others, is just marketing a new way to say the same thing other folks are saying and re-using science to meet his profit objectives. It's written to capture the attention of susestible dieters to buy his products. However, there are grains of truth in what he's written. Those of us pursuing particular fitness goals just have to be aware of what our end game is and design our programs to meet that end. It ain't easy with all this stuff out there in cyberspace just waiting to hook us.

It seems like the most common-sense advice is "everything in moderation". This would include food, drink and exercise. When I started my path toward fitness, I began with a daily dose of cardio. It allowed my overall health to improve so that I could move on to resistance (weight) training. The good news with cardio is that it burns calories period. If your routine is short bursts of intense exercise or long, "fat burning" sessions, cardio will help. Resistance or weight training will help kick start your metabolism, but should not be done every day. A balanced approach seems to be cardio, mixed in with weights. That's my plan. I'm sure it will work for me.

I will disagree with the author of this post, Cardio will burn your muscle but after a insane amount of training repeated over and over again... anyone can go running for 30min-1h each day all summer long without burning any muscle mass.

I don't know how I stumbled across this topic but it is indeed interesting and I agree with the theory behind the pros & cons; we accept what we want to hear and dispute that which goes against our decision. I've been rethinking my whole (new) treadmill cardio walk for a week now because it seems when I first started I struggled a bit and worked up a sweat but after nearly a month, not so. Additionally, my weight loss stalled despite a huge caloric deficit.

Am I in better health or worse? My resting heart rate is low too and likely due to damage from the past health (unhealthy) crap I've done to myself.

I don't have any scientific data to link, sorry. I guess just put me in the 'everyone is different and has to make up their mind' category because that's what I decided to do this morning before I found this post. I decided to take a break on the weekends. Fortunately I never upped my calories to include the walking. But I decided that based on my own personal inventory rather than a study telling me too much was bad. Everything in moderation and listen to your body.

I've seen "chronic cardio" defined as exercise where the heart rate is 75% of max and above. Keeping your heart rate at 75% + of max for extended periods is not healthy. It stresses the body and immune system, has an inflammatory effect, and does not promote fat loss. Light aerobic exercise is encouraged... even for longer periods of time. Light aerobic exercise is defined as exercise where your heart rate is at 55-75% of max heart rate. These types exercise would be walking, hiking, easy/moderate cycling.

I like the treadmill. I wear a HR monitor. I can keep my HR in the target zone by varying the speed and incline on the treadmill. I can jog at 5 mph and stay below the 75% target for up to 20 minutes without exceeding the upper end of "light aerobic exercise." This target rate is optimal for burning fat. To enhance fat burning, you'll want to build muscle. This can be accomplished through explosive movements in resistance exercises as well as workouts that include sprints.

It's all outlined in the "Primal Blueprint" and marksdailyapple.com for those that are interested in a diet and exercise plan that is sensible and produces results. Mark Sisson is the author of the book and has done the research. The interesting thing is that Mark himself was a "chronic cardio" and carbohydrate addict. He was a world class distance runner... and he is now completely against "chronic cardio" and using carbohydrates to fuel our bodies.

Much of what the original post quoted can be true about people who do "cardio" without keeping track of their heart rate or recovery, who set only a goal of running longer and harder each day. They don't realize that improvement occurs during our rest periods. Just pushing yourself harder irrespective of your body's responses is a good way to lose lean body mass. And the scale may reflect that weight loss, encouraging them to run even longer and harder.

I think this is very interesting and can see where there is truth in this. I spent a couple years on weight watchers and increasing exercise all the time, just to keep getting fatter and fatter. My doctor didn't have any explanation because she said I was doing everything right. I would get up early and do over an hour of intense cardio and about a half hour of weight lifting. I was just getting fatter all the time. I finally gave up because it gets so depressing and you start to feel obsessive about it. I now decided to try again with the help of a dietitian and a new strategy. I'm only 1 week in but am feeling good about lowering my calories and doing short workouts through out my day. I can't wait to report that I've lost weight... finally.

I would be concerned, especially if this pattern continues. Losing weight too quickly is definitely going to result in too much muscle loss - this in turn slows the metabolism right now which makes it ...